Starwood Hotels Goes Live with Global Telepresence Meetings Suites

By Anil Sharma

TMCnet Contributor

 

 

According to Starwood Hotels’ officials, the W Chicago City Center and Sheraton on the Park Sydney are the first in Starwood’s global portfolio to introduce the new meeting facilities, showcasing the state-of-the-art Cisco (News - Alert) TelePresence technology.

 

Cisco TelePresence provides life-like, high definition, conferencing facilities with audio, video and environmental qualities allowing participants to meet their colleagues, customers and business partners across a virtual table.

 

In June of 2009, Starwood announced a partnership with Tata Communications and plans to build Cisco TelePresence rooms in 10 properties worldwide.

 

Officials with Tata Communications (News - Alert) said that in addition to the W Chicago and Sheraton on the Park Sydney, two more Cisco TelePresence meeting suites will open in the first half of this year including the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers and Sheraton Centre Toronto, which will come online in the upcoming months.

 

According to the company officials reservations for these telepresence rooms can be made instantly using the Tata Communications online portal, with a convenient payment capability using all major credit cards.

 

“The launch of the new Cisco TelePresence meeting suites at the W Chicago and Sheraton on the Park Sydney is another example of Starwood’s commitment to innovation by offering our clients an exciting, new meetings solution that facilitates a ‘face-to-face’ meeting in the same room regardless of global location,” said Christie Hicks, senior vice president of global sales for Starwood, in a statement.

 

Hicks said that the company has a great partner in Tata Communications and looks forward to continuing opening new meeting facilities throughout the portfolio of hotels around the world.

 

“With 2010 fully in gear, we’re well on our way in bringing more public rooms in critical business hubs like Sydney and Chicago. We hope that through this partnership with Starwood, even more business executives can take advantage of the productivity this technology offers and save on costs that can be invested in their core competencies,” said Peter Quinlan, director, managed telepresence services, Tata Communications.

Quinlan said that the company intends to make telepresence available to as many users as possible with global network of public telepresence rooms and suite of managed telepresence network services for businesses.

 

He said that this opening is just the first step in that direction with many more in other key markets soon to follow this year.

 

Mark Weidick, vice president and general manager for Cisco’s TelePresence Exchange Business Unit, said that more businesses are recognizing the value of being able to rent Cisco TelePresence facilities by the hour, either to extend their existing deployment to further locations or to experience Cisco TelePresence for the first time.

 

Weidick said that having meeting facilities in a comfortable setting with access to business services at times that fit individuals’ schedule can help to take some of the grind out of traveling.

 

“The value of public suites facilities increases exponentially as more rooms from more providers come on stream, so today’s announcement represents another key milestone in making these facilities more practical for business,” he said.